The Boston Radio Blog

.....blogging the Boston Radio scene!

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Severin returns! (???)

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Statement from Greater Media Spokeswoman....

We have had conversations with Jay Severin over the past several weeks about his hurtful, inappropriate remarks. He understands that we will not accept this type of commentary on our airwaves in the future. Based on this understanding, we have agreed to conclude Jay's suspension and he will return to the 96.9 FM WTKK airwaves on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. We want to emphasize that WTKK still strongly supports an open and spirited debate about the many issues our community and our country currently face. There will no doubt be times when people disagree with what Jay says. Our goal is to maintain a level of discourse that is compelling and thought-provoking, yet civil and respectful. While we will not always succeed in walking this line, we will continually strive to do so.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Ch 2's Beat the Press Talks Severin

A six minute segment of WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press" discusses the Jay Severin suspension from WTKK. Hosted by Emily Rooney, who once was part of the Severin show, the panelists wonder if WTKK may bring him back but maybe at reduced pay and/or a requirement to do the show from their studios rather than his home--and a more toned down approach.

Some outraged listeners have contacted sponsors for a possibly boycott. WTKK's ratings under the new Personal People Meters ratings system have suffered. They now have to face the question, what is worse: living with Jay, or living without him? If Jay werereplaced, would the ratings suffer even further, or could Jay's ratings improve if hewere brought back and given a new approach?

(Blast from the Past, 2007: Greater Boston Beat-The-Press regular Dan Kennedy writes about how Jay Severin, who had invited Rooney to be on his show once a week, promptly DIS-invited her after he somehow didn't get invited to the Greater Boston anniversary party...)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Is the Clear Channel deal gonna blow up...?

Scott Sperling, co-president of Thomas H. Lee Partners, one of the investments groups involved with the privatization of Clear Channel was asked on CNBC, "Is the CLear Channel deal going to blow up or not?

Saturday, May 09, 2009

How's satellite radio working out?

Sirius XM (SIRI) blamed the plummeting U.S. auto industry for its first-ever quarterly subscriber decline this week: During the first quarter, Sirius lost 400,000 net satellite radio subscribers, finishing March with 18.6 million subs.

But Sirius XM's growth rate has been sliding for years. As the car industry continues to sink -- and competition intensifies -- it's going to be even harder to find new customers.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Globe talks to TALKERS' Michael Harrison

In an interview with the Globe, Michael Harrison of TALKERS says talk radio on AM and FM has about 4-5 yrs left --the Internet will be its future(he also says liberal talk radio is doing great--if you count NPR and shock jocks). He praises the "old" WRKO (and also has nice words about both Hannity and Colmes)

He does point out that many of today's kids don't own radios, or at least don't consider radio an essential part of life. That'snot encouraging.

Friday, May 01, 2009

WTKK suspends Severin indefinitely

Listener complaints about the "hateful tone" of the Jay Severin show on WTKK FM 96.9 have resulted in the indefinite suspension of the "libertarian libertine". Curtis Sliwa filled in for the controversial Severin yesterday.

The Herald reports that Severin "called Mexicans crossing the Arizona border 'criminaliens,' (and) said hospital emergency rooms had become 'condos for Mexicans'."

In past ratings periods, Severin won his time slot among listeners in the 25-54range but more recently he placed 14th, the Herald's Jessica Heslam says. More recently he was in the news after Don Imus angrily ended their long friendship after Severin left the Imus show, frustrated at what he felt was unfair treatment.(Photo: Boston Herald)

UPDATE 5/5/09: Air America's Young Turks show is asking their followers tocontact Severin's advertisers and tell them that what the host said was racistand that he needs to be fired.

UPDATE 5/7/09: For now, WTKK's fix for the 3-7 pm slot may well be "The ToddSchnitt Show". According to Wikipedia, ""The Schnitt Show" is a conservative radio program that leans somewhat more socially libertarian than traditional conservative." Though on the next day, Sliwa was back on doing a fill-in...

NOTE: I just wanted to add this link to Raccoon's post. There seems to be champagne corks popping as people revel in Severin's seeming misfortune.

UPDATE 5/15/09: Rumors have it that WTKK may have signed Michael Smerconish, who does a local show out of Philadelphia (WPHT, where WTKK's Grace Blazer worked last)and a nationally syndicated show. Allegedly Smerconish had said on his show today that he would be doing afternoon drive at a station in Boston today, and that a Boston station had signed him. Stay tuned; it could be interesting come 3 pm at 96.9